Upgrade Path - New CPU + Mobo - Which to Buy?

[hondaf17]

Please don't do this. This is a big forum but the world is an even bigger place. We are going to be forever receiving new threads from members asking the types of questions that to some old-timers may seem like the same old question being asked over and over...but you need to leave your jaded views and conspiracy theories at the door.

When you reach the point where your best response to a fellow member is the sort of post you added above to this thread - that is the point in time in which you need to voluntarily step away from the keyboard and go do something more constructive with your time instead of reigning down negativity with a pissy attitude on what is most likely to be a genuine member asking a very legitimate question.

Thank you.

 

[hondaf17]

Alright guys, I went with the i5 3570k and AsRock Z77 Pro 4 mobo for $230 from Microcenter.

Got everything up and running, also installed W8 on an Intel 330 180 GB SSD.

My idle temps (at stock, using artic silver 5, Hyper 212+) are 19, 21, 24, 15. Max temps while gaming (BF3) got to 45, 47, 48, 44.

Is it normal for the temps of the cores to differ so much at idle? I plan to try overclocking in another week or two. When you overclock this chip do you just boost the turbo mode? Or do you just fix it in at the max speed all the time? In BF3 it stays consistent about 3.6 Ghz and I'm GPU constrained. If Intel's design does a good job of turbo/boosting when needed, it doesn't seem like there would be any advantage to tell it to run at say 4.2 100% of the time. With my old AMD chips though I always disabled cool n quiet and set it to stay at the OC.

Thanks for the suggestions guys, they're appreciated. First trip to Intel in 10 years or so and so far so good.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Temps for cores are okay. The difference is normal.

 

[Idontcare]

My idle temps (at stock, using artic silver 5, Hyper 212+) are 19, 21, 24, 15. Max temps while gaming (BF3) got to 45, 47, 48, 44.

Is it normal for the temps of the cores to differ so much at idle?

Those are really low idle temps. How cold is the room itself?

 

[hondaf17]

Those are really low idle temps. How cold is the room itself?

The room is 66 degrees F. However I should add that the side of my case is off, as I've been doing tinkering and swaping HDD in and out performing my backups...

 

[inf64]

Very nice system hondaf17 . Your temps are good. Why did you opt for Windows 8 (I'm just curious ) ?

 

[hondaf17]

Very nice system hondaf17 . Your temps are good. Why did you opt for Windows 8 (I'm just curious ) ?

I tried the release preview before I bought the upgrade. I like the enhanced task manager/resource manager. I actually like the people app, which syncs all my accounts (facebook, linkedin, mail, etc) very well. I also like the faster start up times.

These things were enough for me to give it a go as my primary OS.

Sometimes I have been infuriated by the interface and I still do not quite understand how multitasking works in metro mode. I have not determined how windows/apps in metro mode behave the way they do (triple monitors, opening, closing, moving, etc). However, the things I liked above outweigh these for me, at least for now.

 

[inf64]

Yeah metro is what turned me off when it comes to win8. It's not bad,far from it but I got used to win7 ,cannot switch now .

Do you see some noticeable change in every day usage Vs your old 3.8Ghz Deneb? For compute intensive stuff 3570K will be decently faster even at stock.

 

[Symcy94]

I would recomend you i5 ... The only reason is because I'm using i5 3350p and it's budget version of proccessor. But still I'm wery happy with it. And your 3570K is even better, because you can overclock it pretty nicely.
Buy now motherboard and i5
collect some more money and get watter cooling for CPU and OC it

Why I don't suggest you AMD ?
First of all, I won't say that I don't recomend you AMD.
And that's because I never had AMD so can't make opinion on that.

But i5 seems rly nice

 

[hondaf17]

Yeah metro is what turned me off when it comes to win8. It's not bad,far from it but I got used to win7 ,cannot switch now .

Do you see some noticeable change in every day usage Vs your old 3.8Ghz Deneb? For compute intensive stuff 3570K will be decently faster even at stock.

The Deneb actually held it's own very well. The biggest change I see is from the installation of my first SSD. On Ultra settings in BF3 I was already GPU constrained. However, on BF3 and Planetside 2 my FPS seem higher and more consistent. I did some benchmarking on the Deneb before I switched and will report back with concrete findings and #'s to back it up once I've had time to benchmark the i5.

 

[inf64]

The Deneb actually held it's own very well. The biggest change I see is from the installation of my first SSD. On Ultra settings in BF3 I was already GPU constrained. However, on BF3 and Planetside 2 my FPS seem higher and more consistent. I did some benchmarking on the Deneb before I switched and will report back with concrete findings and #'s to back it up once I've had time to benchmark the i5.

Ok thanks. That would be valuable info for those looking to upgrade their CPU/motherboard.

 

[hondaf17]

So to overclock the 3570k I just did the following in my bios (AS Rock Z77 Pro 4):

Went to "OC Tweaker"
Went to "load optimized CPU setting"
Increased "Turbo to 4.4 Ghz"

Took about 2 seconds and I've been stable.

Is this seriously all it takes? Does that mean when Turbo kicks in all 4 of my cores are at 4.4Ghz?

 

[hondaf17]

Thought I would come back for a quick update for ya'll.

With the post I outlined above I ran Prime 95 for 30 minutes. Voltage to my CPU was mostly between 1.288 and 1.304. I have a Hyper 212 + and arctic silver 5.

Max temps:
81
88
89
84

idle temps are:
23
24
27
19

Here's a link to the screenshot of the stress test:
http://sdrv.ms/VvMHX9

Does all look ok? Those voltage and temps ok? Anything easy I can do to improve (less volts, lower temp, etc)?

TYIA,